Mysterious Gmail Account Lockouts Result Fears of Hacking

Several users got panicked and reported that they have experienced series of issues in Google accounts on Wednesday. While few complained that they are unable to connect to their Google Wifi and OnHub routers, some concerned users said that Gmail was suddenly logging them out from their accounts.

While this problem is allegedly affecting a big section of users, but it seems that it does not pose any immediate danger to online security of users. Thenextweb.com posted on February 25th, 2017, stating that Google has issued a statement confirming the problem on their dedicated Support Page, however Google also assures that the problems were not related to any attempts by hackers.

El Reg came to know of the problem following a tip from a self-described "very security conscious" IT professional which got locked out of his Gmail account. This happened after one of the phone numbers of his security got changed.

Others seem to have suffered somewhat similar problems and have posted their experiences to Reddit and somewhere else. Users are receiving messages saying that their account has been changed and asked them to sign again into Google on their mobile. It's not clear if there is some type of fault or a hack to be blamed.

El Reg requested Google on Friday morning for a comment but they did not get any response yet. While El Reg has been waiting for a response, they proposed security people through Twitter, two of them have said that they have been asked to authenticate themselves again and log back into their Google accounts.

Like several other users, one of the Hacker News member said that initially the problem led him believing that his account might have been hacked. He said: ""[T]his happened to me this afternoon on my android. Went into a full panic mode." He further added that he says no to type the passwords, as he got worried that it might was another app which have been imitating the Google. He also said that, "I had no recollection of any action that would have required me to sign in again."

The Big G has not commented yet that whether reported problems were related, although in view of massive leak suffered by Cloudflare yesterday - this might be possible. We have contacted Google for more comment and will update this piece accordingly if we get any response.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/1/2017